


How to care for a Dream

by XxGalaxyGirl2019xX (orphan_account)



Series: How to care for a Dream [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Baby Dream, Baby Dream is scared of strangers, Chapters are out of chronological order, Gen, He's adorable, Originally a Oneshot, Protective Nightmare, So are his nicknames for the gang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2020-12-27 15:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21120788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/XxGalaxyGirl2019xX
Summary: During a fight with the bad Sanses, Dream accidentally turns into a baby and the bad Sanses have to take care of him.This also includes my headcanon of Dream or Nightmare turning into a baby if they die and have no idea of whatever that had happened before their deaths.***I hate myself for like this AU so much. The original request for this was from Fiddlethecat. The chapters aren't going to be in chronological order. They'll just be scattered between different parts of Dream's childhood.Feel free to give suggestions if you want.





	1. The beggining

Dream yelped as he dodged one of Dust's knives, causing the arrow that he had shot to miss and land inches away from Killer, his target.

He looked around, spotting Ink, who was currently having a one-on-one fight with the destroyer and Blue, who was trying to help the local Sans and Papyrus to keep the weird machine they had to be working on from getting destroyed, Cross dodging the attacks the three were shooting at him so he wouldn't reach what they were protecting.

Dream quickly fired an arrow at Killer, the arrow landing in the killer's arm, causing him to hiss in pain and charge at him with his knife.

Dream dodged Killer's attack and kicked him, causing Killer to fall onto the floor as Dream towered over him. As Dream got ready to strike the skeleton once more, a slimy tentacle grabbed him from behind, slamming him into the weird machine, Blue and the two locals not being fast enough to stop the impact.

The skeleton screamed as the machine's electricity went through his bones, making him feel like he was being ripped apart. Soon enough, the screams stopped and the limp, burnt body of Dream fell to the floor. Sparks started to fly of the machine and whoever was left took cover, soon enough, the machine exploded.

When Nightmare and his gang finally managed to get out of the rubble, they intended to teleport away as soon as possible. That was, until Cross hearrd someone crying. Nightmare, quickly realizing what was going on, hissed. "No Cross. You can't go see whose baby that is."

"Too late. I already have." Cross shouted, currently further away from the group as he slowly lifted up a small piece of rubble to see the crying baby. He froze at the sight of the gaurdian of positivity, now in the size of a baby, looking up at him with teary eyes, his clothes now being too large for him and his circlet resting around his neck, as the tiny baby's skull was sized down enough for the circlet to fall. Cross slowly picked him up, careful not to alert him as he walked back to the group. "We're keeping him. Right?"

"Wrong. We aren--" Nightmare was cut off as one of his tentacles poked Dream, causing him to stare at the tentacle with wide, curious eyes. Nightmare looked at Cross' face, seeing the determined look on his face. "Fine." He sighed. "But he's your responsibility." Nightmare quickly made a portal to his lair and they fled with the baby before Ink or Blue could come to bother them.

Little did they know, they had a lot to learn about taking care of a baby. Dream, to be specific.

Number one.

Babies are night-owl teenagers in a cute disguise.

Cross flopped out on his bed, looking at Dream who was lying in his stolen crib, wearing light blue stolen overalls and hugging a stolen teddy bear as he hugged the bear tight, the circlet he had earlier was resting on the drawer next to Cross' bed. It was rather impressive for him to manage to steal these many things in the same day as a big fight like the one they had earlier.

Cross was just starting to fall sleep when Dream decided it was a good idea to get hungry at four AM and, technically being only a day old, started to cry.

Cross groaned as he got up to make Dream some baby milk, still half-sleep.

Number two.

Don't leave a Dream alone with anything sharp.

It had been a week since Dream was turned into a baby and the gang decided to go and destroy an AU, having to leave Dream at home by himself while he was sleep in Dust's room, Dust had insisted on taking care of the baby since Cross was too exhausted to keep caring for the baby by himself.

When they came back, Dream's screams and cries caused Cross to bolt to Dust's room.

Dream had woken up and somehow found Dust's knives and, thinking that it was a toy, started to play with it, resulting in a deep wound on his arm, bleeding as he screamed on top of his non-existent lungs.

Nightmare quickly grabbed Cross' arm and pushed him away, not letting him see what had happened as he signalled Dust to clean up the blood as he scooped Dream up, disappearing out of sight to tend to the tiny baby's wound.

Number three.

Babies don't like strangers. Or at least who they think is an stranger.

"You sure it's a good idea to let Blue know about this?" Killer asked Error uncertainly.

"Yes." Error answered as he, Killer and Cross sat in the woods of Underswap's Snowdin, waiting for Blue to come. "Blue was really missing him. Plus, I made sure he won't tell Ink."

Blue's eyes shimmered in happiness when he took sight of the month old Dream, only for the baby to scream and cry when Blue hugged him, thinking that Blue was an stranger. Blue didn't let that make him sad though, he just played with the baby without startling him.

Number four.

First words aren't always mama or papa.

Too Cross' insistence, the gang had gathered around the baby for his first word. "Fa... Fa..."

'He's gonna say father, isn't he?"

"F... Fa... Fack yu!" Dream finally blurted out.

After a few seconds of utter silence, Horror finally broke it. "I just noticed how much we fucking curse in this house."

"I'm proud!" Nightmare said as he picked Dream up. Cross just had the look that said... Why?

Number five.

Last but not least, He's too adorable to say no to.

It was Dream's two years old birthday, and for the occasion, he was having his first ever theft.

It was Nightmare's idea, Okay?

They were going to steal one of the most precious gems from a high-security museum.

Just for fun!

Dream sat on the sidewalk, waiting for the signal. Once he received the signal from Nightmare, he put the phone in the pocket of his new black and blue sweater and walked towards thr door of the museum, calling for the guards as he put up a distressed face. "Help! Please Help!" He cried.

The guards, being too dumb to make sense of anything, came over to the two year old as Dream told them that a group of armed men had attacked him and his parents in an alley and he had managed to escape to get help, causing the guards to leave the museum and the theft to be done at peace.

On the way back, the gang passed by a toy shop and something immediately caught the little skeleton's attention. A small teddy bear. "Nighty!" Dream told his brother. "Can I have tha'?"

"Don't you think you already have too many?" Nightmare asked in an annoyed tone.

"Pweaaaase?"

Nightmare sighed as a tentacle shot out, breaking the glass amd taking the teddy bear, giving it to the two year old as they teleported away.


	2. The secret meeting

Nightmare watched in amusement as the toddler tried to climb onto his desk while hugging one of his many teddy bears. The new purple and white one he had gotten to be specific.

Dream finally got his small self onto the desk, only to accidentally let go of the plush. "Pah!" He blabbered as he reached out to grab the bear, almost falling over the edge of the desk, only for one of Nightmare's tentacles to shoot out on instict and grab the back of the toddler's yellow t-shirt and drag him back on the desk before he fell as the other tentacle got the bear for him. "Thans Nootmer!" He blabbered, causing the goopy skeleton to look at him in surprise, only for him to remember that the toddler could indeed somewhat talk, he just didn't seem to think the others were worthy of hearing him talk.

"Stop calling me like that. It's Nightmare, not Nootmer." He complained.

"Nutmer?"

"Nightmare." The goopy skeleton frowned.

"N... Nutty!"

"No." Nightmare facepalmed. "It's Nig--"

"Uuuh... Boss? What's going on?" Horror asked as he entered the room.

"Nutty!" Dream squealed as he pointed at Nightmare.

"Pffft. Hahahaha." Horror laughed. "Anyways. Inky is messing around too much again and it gotta stop."

"I... Icky?" Dream looked at Horror curiously. Who was Icky?

"Sure. I'll come and we can attack him. Again." Nightmare frowned.

"Okay..." Horror muttered. "...Nutty~" There was the sound of Nightmare groaning as he reached out for something, but Horror didn't stay around long enough to find out what was going to be thrown at him.

Nightmare sighed as he set the small skeleton on the ground. "Don't cause trouble until we come back. Okay?" Dream nodded. "And be careful. Don't want what happened that time to repeat, Right?" The toddler nodded, running his hand over the old wound that was left from the first time he was left by himself.

A few minutes after his brother and the others had left, he started to get bored of playing with his bear and started crawling around to find something to do, he could walk, but he prefered crawling.

The others didn't know, but he had found a trick of his own. He stood in the mkiddle of his room, Cross' to be specific, and closed his eyes. He felt a warm tingle going through his bones, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in some bushes, surrounded by snow. Though he wasn't focused on that. Instead he was looking at the fight gloing down in front of him between his brother and his friends and Blue and his friend, Ink.

He never knew why he went to see the fights, it felt as if he was supposed to be fighting there like his brother. He gpt deep into his thoughts and eventually fell sleep.

When he woke up, the fight was over and the only thing left was the destroyed wasteland that was left. Then he remembered that the pothers must've been looking for him back at home. He tried to concentrate his power to go back home but...

"What do we have here now?" A voice said from behind him. As they picked him up, he realized he was staring into a pair of changing eyelights. He panicked, his brother had told him not to get involved with Ink, but never told him why. And now he was scared of finding out the reason. He started to cry, causing the artist to put him down. "Okay Okay! Calm down! I can help you! What's your name kiddo?"

"D-d-d-dweam." He answered.

Ink froze. 'It's a coincidence. It has to be.' He thought to himself. "Who do you live with?" I might know them!"

Dream didn't want to tell him, but he was too scared. He just wanted to go home. "My big bwothe. D-dut. K-killy. Horre. Coss." He said, saying their names in her childish slang.

Ink's expression as he realized what had happened caused Dream to get more traumatized. He quickly closed his eyes, wanting to go back home again.

Then he opened them again and saw that he was back home in his and Cross' room.

He felt the fear take over him as golden tears welled up at his eyesockets as he began to cry.

He heard someone enter the room. He felt a tentacle wrap around him as his brother picked him up, trying to calm him down. It took a while, but the toddler finally fell sleep out of exhaustion, leaving the others wondering about what had happened to him.

He didn't tell.

They didn't ask.

It was probably for the best.


	3. Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a few days after the previous chapter.

The day had started as normal. Dream being adorable. The gang being the gang. Ink banging on their hideout's door.

Wait what?

"I know your in there!" Ink screeched. "Come on out. Now."

Nightmare growled as he opened the door slightly, just enoigh to see Ink. "How did you find here and what the hell do you want?"

"Oh I'll tell you that." Ink scowled. "Give me back Dream. I know he's with you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ink." Nightmare responded calmly. "Do you mean that Dream is alive?"

"Don't lie to me Nightmare. I know he's here. He told me a few days ago. After our fight." Ink revealed. "He was sleeping in a bush and he teleported away after he said he lived with you guys."

"What do you mean you saw him a few d--" Nightmare quickly remembered how the toddler wouldn't have stopped crying after they had finally found him in Cross' room after hours of searching for him. His expression quickly changed into one of anger. "What did you do to him? Why was he crying when we found him?"

"Oh? So your admitting that he's with you?"

"Shut up and answer."

"I didn't do a thing." Ink scoffed. "I just asked him who he lived with he teleported away after he told me he lived with you guys."

"Yeah. He lives with us now." Nighutmare narrowed his eyes. "And he hates you. Most likely because you hate us and maybe a little since you didn't try to save him from dying." He smirked. "The truth hurts doesn't it?" 

"Bwother!" Dream's voice sounded from one off the rooms. "Come pway!"

"Well. Guess that's my cue to go!" Nightmare winked as he closed the door in Ink's face. "Bye!"

Ink sighed in frustration as he teleported away. He had to find a way. The gang were no good for raising a child and Dream was no exeption.

"Who tha'?" Dream asked curiously when Nightmare came back to his room. "You angwy..."

"Dream." Nightmare sighed as he sat in front of the toddler. "Why did you go out by yourself a few days ago?"

"Wha?" Dream looked confused. "Why can me not go out awone?" 

"Because it's dangerous." Nightmare explained. "If you want to go outside, you'll have to ask one of us to come with you. Got it?" Dream nodded glumly. "Now now. Don't be sad. What did you want to play again?"


	4. Circlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place when Dream is six or seven

The young skeleton slowly crept through the halls, not wanting to wake anyone up during his midnight journey. He came to a halt when he finally found the entrance to where he wanted to go.

The basement.

He gulped and slowly opened the door, the creaking sound of the door made him jump a little bit, but since no one had woken up, he proceeded. He lit up his small flashlight, barely illuminating the darkness that scared him so much. He closed his eyes in fear as he quicky ran down the stairs. Once there, he tried to navigate his way through the basement to find what he wanted.

Earlier that day, he had seen Nightmare coming to the basement and hiding something under the countless boxes and random stuff littering it.

The child swept his hand on the side of the boxes until he felt something wet brush across his palm. He slowly brought the steaky liquid near his face, observing that it was, in fact Nightmare's goop left on parts of the box. He forgot all about his fear and quickly removed the boxes and the stuff around it.

Finally he found it. A golden item shining in the flashlight's dim light. He quickly picked it up, running back upstairs and to his room to take a good look at what it was. He drew back his curtains, letting the moonlight illuminate the dark room. He examined the object. He thought it was probably made of gold, judging by it's color. It reminded him of the colorful bracelets that the kids he'd been seeing in his journeys with the gang, but it was way bigger. He didn't think it was a necklace since it didn't seem to fit around anyone's neck.

He took sight of himself in the mirror, a little skeleton, he was rather fragile and small for his age, wearing a pair of baby blue pajamas as his golden eyelights shone through the darkness. Slowly, almost as if on instict, he put the object on his head, it was rather large for him and it covered half of his eye sockets. He slowly got over to the mirror, trying to see it better. He almost touched the mirror when a blinding pain shot through his body, making him feel as if he was being ripped apart.

_He was running. He didn't know from what. He could hear someone running after him. He turned around and saw that it was the familiar goopy skeleton chasing after him. Normally the sight would calm him down, but this time it just made him run faster as one of the tentacles shot out, destroying the ceiling where he was. The last thing he remembered was the ceiling falling on him as the creator he had been told not to trust pulled him out of the way from being crushed._

The circlet fell to the ground with a loud clank as the boy started to back away from the mirror, his eye sockets filled with golden tears. 'My brother isn't like that...' He thought uncertainly. 'H-He wouldn't hurt me... He won't... Would he?'

"Dream. What happened." The boy quicky looked up, he hadn't even noticed his brother enter the room. Dream quickly shook his head, but told him anyways.

It took a while for Nightmare to calm his younger brother and put him back to sleep, his aura didn't help either, but after Dream finally fell sleep, he picked up the circlet and brought it to his room. He destroyed the circlet, burying the remains under the ground.

He, knowing his brother's morals, knew Dream might someday choose to be against them.

He just prefered not to get his brother against him until he absolutely had to.


	5. Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's short. Like, really short.

"I can't believe him!" Ink growled in frustration as he flopped out onto Blue's couch. "Who does he think he is?"

"What's going on?" Blue asked innocently, pretending that he didn't know. 

"Blue. Don't freak out but..." Ink took a deep breath to calm himself. "Dream is alive and hee has tirned into a baby and Nightmare has imprisoned him!"

"Wait... WHAT?!" Blue shrieked, keeping up his act. "How dare he!?" He quickly went tto he kitchen to get some tacos for himself.

Ink had a bad feeling. He knew that Blue had been acting weird these few days. He also remembered the taco-loving skeleton slip something under the couch when he had arrived through a portal. Making sure that Blue was busy, Ink slowly brought his hand under the couch and brought out what Blue had tried to hide. It was a series of photos.

"You have to tell me the full story Ink!" Blue said as he came back intoo the living room. Then he spotted Ink with the photos. "O-oh... I see you--"

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS?!" Ink shrieked as he threw the pictures of the bad guys, Blue and baby Dream at the blue skeleton. "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT IT?!"

"It was a secret..." Blue squeaked out, getting scared because off Ink's anger.

"Secret? THIS WAS A SECRET?!" Ink spat out. "THIS IS NO SECRET BLUE! THIS IS A BETRAYAL BLUE." He teleported to his doodle sphere, leaving the sobbing skeleton behind.


	6. New member

Ink growled in frustration and threw his half-finished drawing away after crumbling it up into a ball. He sighed and lied down on his bed at his house in the Doodle Sphere. Dream turning into a baby and Blue not telling him about it had messed up his mind and he couldn't focus on anything anymore.

He snapped out of his thoughts when his phone started ringing. He picked it up after he saw that it was Blue's brother, Stretch. "Heya Stretch."

"Ink..." Stretch's voice was filled with dread and worry, along with some anger. "Is Blue there with you...?"

"N-No." Ink gulped. "What do you mean? Isn't he there with you?" 

"He's not." Stretch hissed. "You better know where he is, you hear me? He was really messed up a few days ago when you came to visit and I swear if anything has happened to him y--"

"How about you just calm down?" Ink asked worriedly as he got up to get ready and look for Blue. "When was the last time you saw him? Did he act weird before going missing? Did he take anything with himself?"

"He was very sad when you left like that that day. I tried to calm him down but it didn't help." Stretch admitted. "He went missing yesterday. He was real bubbly and I thought you had gotten over your fight. I saw him put a few clothes and some of his personal stuff in a backpack. He told me he was going to come stay at your place for a few days to completely get over the fight. I tried to call him a few times today to see if he's doing alright but he didn't answer so I called you."

Ink couldn't believe himself. His attitude had gotten another one of his friends to leave him again. "I'll be there in a few minutes." He hung up, quickly making a portal to Underswap.

***

Blue took a deep breath as he walked out of his house. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder as he walked towards the woods, getting out of Snowdin. He had made his mind. He had asked Error the previous night if he could stay with him and the gang for a while or even become one of them. When Error asked him why he wanted to know that, Blue responded that told him the whole story and Error was furious. Blue quickly calmed the glitchy skeleton down before he could do anything and they decided to meet at the outer edges of the Snowdin woods.

Blue let his tears fall when he saw his friend waiting for him. He didn't pretend that everything was back to normal with Ink anymore. Error quietly wiped his tears and teleported him to their hideout.

And now here he was. Lying on the couch in the gang's hideout with Dream curled up into a ball and sleeping on his torso. He chuckled weakly, believing for once in a long time that everything was going to be just fine.

Funny. 

He had never realized how good the bad guys could be.


	7. Park

"C'mon Blue!" The tiny seven year old chirped excitedly. "Nighty promised me t--"

"Yeah yeah. Nightmare promised you to go to park together, but then suddenly he got really busy and now I'm going to go to park with you instead." The blue skeleton rolled his eyes and slipped on a baby blue sweater that matched with the younger one's. "Ready to go Dream?"

"Let's gooooooo!" Dream shouted excitedly and jumped through the portal to the park they were going to. When they landed on the pavement, Blue immediately grabbed the back of the younger's sweater to keep him from running away in excitement. It had happened once and the result... wasn't pretty for the people that wanted to 'help' Dream.

Sometimes the young skeleton was way too energetic for his own good...

Soon they reached the playground, where the other kids were gathered in small groups and were playing with each other. Blue sat on a swing and watched as Dream played by himself and away from the other kids. He seemed to hang around the pirate-themed slide set. The other kids didn't even seem to want to get near the set. They said it was haunted and that the tunnels that joined different parts of the set were filled with water and had sharks in them. Of course, those were complete bullshit. They were just too scared.

Blue slowly pushed himself on the sing, closing his eyes and letting himself drown in his thoughts. He didn't know how long he was like that. Sitting on the swing. Thinking about Ink. About Dream. About his brother that he hadn't seen in a long time. About their lives before Dream turned into a child. About their lives now. 

His eyes snapped open when he felt Dream tug on his sweater. "What is it Dream?" 

"Swing." Dream simply answered. Blue chuckled and helped the other on his lap as he was on the swing and slowly pushed himself and Dream. It was calming and Dream seemed to like it.

He felt Dream's grip on his sweater become harder at the sight of something. Blue looked up to see someone walking towards them.

Ink.

Blue scooped up the child and tried to run away, yet he stopped when Ink put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't know what to do. On one hand, he really missed Ink, the last time he saw the artist was the last time they had fought. A few days before he left and joined the bad side. On the other hand, he could feel the seven year old clutching the fabric of his sweater and shaking with fear. The artist had tried more than a few times to take Dream under his own custody, saying that Nightmare was unfit for raising a child like him.

"Blue." He heard Ink say in disbelief. "Is it really you? Where were you? Me and Stretch were looking for you ev--" Ink finally took sight of the small skeleton that was trying to look as hidden as possible in Blueberry's arms. "Oh... You were with them, I suppose..."

Blue didn't turn around to face his old friend. He could feel tiny blue tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "I was..." He sighed. "I have to go."

"I assume I'll be seeing you around then?" The artist asked. Blue smiled and nodded weakly. 

For a few seconds he stopped. Then turned around and hugged Ink. He quickly pushed away from the hug and ran away. "YEP! SEE YOU AROUND!"


End file.
